fleet of Athens, repaired or increased by the timber received from Antigonus, was made to furnish thirty quadriremes to assist Demetrius in Cyprus, and was employed in certain operations near the island of Amorgos, wherein it suffered defeat'. But we can discover little respecting the course of the war, except that Kassander gained ground upon the Athenians, and that about the beginning of 303 B.C. he was blockading or threatening to blockade, Athens. The Athenians invoked the aid of Demetrius Poliorketes, who, having recently concluded an accommodation with the Rhodians, came again across from Asia, with a powerful fleet and army, to Aulis in Boeotia2. He was received at Athens with demonstrations of honour equal or superior to those which had marked his previous visit. He seems to have passed a year and a half, partly at Athens, partly in military operations carried successfully over many parts of Greece. compelled the Boeotians to evacuate the Euboean city of Chalkis, and to relinquish their alliance with Kassander. He drove that prince out of Atticaexpelled his garrisons from the two frontier fortresses of Attica,-Phylê and Panaktum--and pursued him as far as Thermopylæ. He captured, or He may be seen by the Ithyphallic ode addressed to Demetrius Poliorketes (Athenæus, vi. p. 253). Diodor. xx. 50; Plutarch, Demetr. 11. In reference to this defeat near Amorgos, Stratokles (the complaisant orator who moved the votes of flattery towards Demetrius and Antigonus) is said to have announced it first as a victory, to the great joy of the people. Presently evidences of the defeat arrived, and the people were angry with Stratokles. "What harm has happened to you? (replied he)—have you not had two days of pleasure and satisfaction?" This is at any rate a very good story. 2 Diodor. xx. 100; Plutarch, Demetr. 23. CHAP. XCVI.] SUCCESS OF DEMETRIUS IN GREECE. 517. obtained by bribing the garrisons, the important towns of Corinth, Argos, and Sikyon; mastering also Ægium, Bura, all the Arcadian towns (except Mantineia), and various other towns in Peloponnesus'. He celebrated, as president, the great festival of the Heræa at Argos; on which occasion he married Deidameia, sister of Pyrrhus, the young king of Epirus. He prevailed on the Sikyonians to transfer to a short distance the site of their city, conferring upon the new city the name of Demetrias. At a Grecian synod, convened in Corinth under his own letters of invitation, he received by acclamation the appointment of leader or Emperor of the Greeks, as it had been conferred on Philip and Alexander. He even extended his attacks as far as Leukas and Korkyra. The greater part of Greece seems to have been either occupied by his garrisons, or enlisted among his subordinates. So much was Kassander intimidated by these successes, that he sent envoys to Asia, soliciting peace from Antigonus; who, however, elate and full of arrogance, refused to listen to any terms short of surrender at discretion. Kassander, thus driven to despair, renewed his applications to Lysimachus, Ptolemy, and Seleukus. All these princes felt equally menaced by the power and dispositions of Antigonus--and all resolved upon an energetic combination to put him down3. 1 Diodor. xx. 102, 103; Plutarch, Demetr. 23-25. 2 Diodor. xx. 102; Plutarch, Demetr. 25; Pausanias, ii. 7, 1. The city was withdrawn partially from the sea, and approximated closely to the acropolis. The new city remained permanently; but the new name Demetrias gave place to the old name Sikyon. 3 Diodor. xx. 106. B.C. 302301. Return of After uninterrupted prosperityin Greece, through out the summer of 302 B.C., Demetrius returned Demetrius from Leukas to Athens, about the month of Sep Poliorketes to Athens -his triumphant reception hymn ad tember, near the time of the Eleusinian mysteries'. He was welcomed by festive processions, hymns, memorable pæans, choric dances, and bacchanalian odes of Ithyphallic joyous congratulation. One of these hymns is preserved, sung by a chorus of Ithyphalli-masked revellers, with their heads and arms encircled by wreaths, clothed in white tunics, and in feminine garments reaching almost to the feet?. dressed to him. This song is curious, as indicating the hopes and fears prevalent among Athenians of that day, and as affording a measure of their self-appreciation. It is moreover among the latest Grecian documents that we possess, bearing on actual and present reality. The poet, addressing Demetrius as a God, boasts that two of the greatest and best-beloved of all divine beings are visiting Attica at the same moment-Demeter (coming for the season of her mysteries), and Demetrius, son of Poseidon and Aphroditê. "To thee we pray (the hymn proceeds); for other Gods are either afar off or have no ears or do not exist or care nothing about us; but thee we see before us, not in wood or marble, but in real presence. First of all things, establish peace; for thou hast the power-and chastise that Sphinx who domineers, not merely over Thebes, but over all Greece-the Etolian, who (like the old Sphinx) rushes from his station 1 That he returned from Leukas about the time of these mysteries, is attested both by Demochares and by the Ithyphallic ode in Athenæus, vi. p. 253. See also Duris ap. Athenæ. xii. p. 535. Semus ap. Athenæum, xiv. p. 622. CHAP. XCVI.] ATHENIAN ODE TO DEMETRIUS. 519 on the rock to snatch and carry away our persons, and against whom we cannot fight. At all times, the Ætolians robbed their neighbours; but now, they rob far as well as nearl.” Helpless condition of nians-pro Effusions such as these, while displaying unmeasured idolatry and subservience towards Deme- the Athetrius, are yet more remarkable, as betraying a loss claimed by of force, a senility, and a consciousness of defence- themselves, less and degraded position, such as we are astonished to find publicly proclaimed at Athens. It is not only against the foreign potentates that the Athenians avow themselves incapable of selfdefence, but even against the incursions of the Ætolians, Greeks like themselves, though warlike, rude, and restless 2. When such were the feelings of a people, once the most daring, confident, and organizing-and still the most intelligent-in 1 Athenaeus, vi. p. 253. Αλλοι μὲν ἢ μακρὰν γὰρ ἀπέχουσιν θεοὶ, ἢ οὐκ ἔχουσιν ὦτα, ἢ οὐκ εἰσὶν, ἢ οὐ προσέχουσιν ἡμῖν οὐδὲ ἕν· οὐ ξύλινον, οὐδὲ λίθινον, ἀλλ' ἀληθινόν. Εὐχόμεσθα δὴ σοί· πρῶτον μὲν εἰρήνην ποιῆσον, φίλτατε, κύριος γὰρ εἶ σύ. Τὴν δ ̓ οὐχὶ Θηβῶν, ἀλλ' ὅλης τῆς Ἑλλάδος, Σφίγγα περικρατοῦσαν, Αἰτωλὸς ὅστις ἐπὶ πέτρας καθήμενος, ὥσπερ ἡ παλαιὰ, τὰ σώμαθ ̓ ἡμῶν πάντ ̓ ἀναρπάσας φέρει, κοὐκ ἔχω μάχεσθαι· Αἰτωλικὸν γὰρ ἁρπάσαι τὰ τῶν πέλας, μάλιστα μὲν δὴ κόλασον αὐτὸς· εἰ δὲ μὴ, τὴν Σφίγγα ταύτην ὅστις ἢ κατακρημνιεῖ, ἢ σπίνον ποιήσει. Compare Pausanias, vii. 7, 4. B.C. 301. Demetrius at Athens. He is initiated in the Eleusinian out of the regular season. Greece, we may see that the history of the Greeks as a separate nation or race is reaching its closeand that from henceforward they must become merged in one or other of the stronger currents that surround them. After his past successes, Demetrius passed some Idolatry of months in enjoyment and luxury at Athens. He was lodged in the Parthenon, being considered as the guest of the Goddess Athênê. But his dissolute habits provoked the louder comments, from being mysteries, indulged in such a domicile; while the violences which he offered to beautiful youths of good family led to various scenes truly tragical. The subservient manifestations of the Athenians towards him, however, continued unabated. It is even affirmed, that, in order to compensate for something which he had taken amiss, they passed a formal decree, on the proposition of Stratokles, declaring that every thing which Demetrius might command was holy in regard to the Gods and just in regard to men'. The banishment of Demochares is said to have been brought on by his sarcastic comments upon this decree2. In the month Munychion (April) 1 Plutarch, Demetr. 24. 2 Such is the statement of Plutarch (Demetr. 24); but it seems not in harmony with the recital of the honorary decree, passed in 272 B.C., after the death of Demochares, commemorating his merits by a statue, &c. (Plutarch, Vit. X. Oratt. p. 850). It is there recited that Demochares rendered services to Athens (fortifying and arming the city, concluding peace and alliance with the Boeotians, &c.) ἐπὶ τοῦ τετραετούς πολέμου, ἀνθ' ὧν ἐξέπεσεν ὑπὸ τῶν καταλυσάντων τὸν δῆμον. Οἱ καταλúσavtes tòv dĥμov cannot mean either Demetrius Poliorketes, or Stratokles. Moreover, we cannot determine when the "four years' war," or the alliance with the Boeotians, occurred. Neither the discussion of Mr. Clinton (Fast. H. 302 B.C., and Append. p. 380), nor the different hypothesis of Droysen, are satisfactory on this point-see Carl Müller's |